Introduction

If you grew up thinking four pizza-loving, sewer-dwelling martial artists could fix anything with a well-timed shell-slap and a catchy theme song, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan probably sounded like a very good idea on paper. PlatinumGames - the studio known for stylish, kinetic action - took a crack at reuniting Leo, Donnie, Mikey and Raph with the city under siege and handed the controller to you. The result feels like a party where the DJ got the playlist half-right: there are moments of pure, punchy fun, but the track repeats so often you start wondering if the DJ is trapped in a loop eating cold pizza. This PS4 version ships with cel-shaded visuals, four-player online co-op, and a gameplay loop built out of combos, swap-at-will turtle action and a delightful pizza mini-game to resurrect downed brothers. Yet despite those ingredients, critics and many players found the final dish underseasoned. It's a blunt instrument of a game: loud, cartoonish, occasionally brilliant for five minutes, then repetitive and oddly empty for the next hour.

Gameplay

Mutants in Manhattan is a straight-up hack-and-slash romp with the Turtles in the driver's seat. You play as Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo or Raphael, each sporting a distinct ninjutsu flavour and some utterly ridiculous ultimate abilities that you can mix and match. Want Leonardo to slow down time like a dramatic blue narwhal of justice? You got it. Fancy Michelangelo doing cheerleading to reset cooldowns like a caffeinated pep squad? That exists too, and it is as gloriously silly as it sounds. Single-player lets you swap between turtles on the fly, which is neat because it lets you combo across playstyles without demanding you master every brother at once. The combat is Platinum at its most accessible: quick, satisfying hits, flashy moves, and the kind of enemy ragdoll that makes smashing mobs feel gratifying. The parkour and parachute traversal mechanics are included so you can clamber up buildings or glide off skyscrapers while bashing foot soldiers into next Tuesday. Progression is tied to Battle Points - the green orb currency - which you spend on skill upgrades or on buying fun toys from Master Splinter, like grappling hooks and rocket launchers. Small touches like April offering hints through a T-Glass and a scanning/tagging system keep you connected to the franchise's lore without demanding you read a 200-page turtle manifesto. Where the gameplay loop starts to wobble is in its structure. There are nine stages, each built around random enemy encounters leading to a boss. The bosses are fine on first pass, but the procedural-feeling middle sections repeat in ways that make a campaign that could have felt like a short, punchy miniseries stretch into a repetitive slog. Critics and players pointed out that missions and level design lack variety; your main activities boil down to clear waves, move to the next arena, repeat. That's acceptable if the arenas and encounters constantly surprise you, but here the novelty wears thin. The multiplayer angle is a saving grace if you can still find matches, since the game supports four-player online co-op. Playing with friends turns generic mob-clearing into a chaotic and enjoyable romp - the kind of late-night mayhem that makes the camera forgive a lot of sins. The major caveat is the absence of local couch co-op, a strange omission for a game whose identity shouts 'bring a buddy and share a pizza.' Platinum reportedly omitted local co-op to achieve technical targets, but the PS4 version still failed to hit 60 frames per second consistently, which made some critics scratch their heads. Downed turtles aren't just gone - they trigger a pizza-eating mini-game to get back into the action if teammates don't revive you. It's adorable and thematically perfect, and it's the kind of weird, characterful idea the game does well. Unfortunately, cute resurrection mechanics can't fully mask the fact that the same combat arenas and mission types cycle too often, making the later stages feel like a remix of tracks you've already heard.

Graphics

Visually, Mutants in Manhattan leans into a comic-book aesthetic inspired by artist Mateus Santolouco, and that direction mostly pays off. The cel-shaded presentation gives the game personality; the Turtles look iconic without being slavish copies of a single cartoon era, which suits Platinum's choice to craft its own continuity. Environments pop with color and the character models have a cartoony weight that fits the series' tone. Special attacks and ultimates flash with the kind of visual oomph you'd expect from a studio that knows how to make combat look cool. That said, presentation quality doesn't excuse technical issues. Reviewers noted that the PS4 build felt like it should have been smoother. The game was criticized for not reaching 60 FPS on any platform, despite earlier statements suggesting local co-op had been sacrificed to hit that target. So, while the game frequently looks like a comic book come to life, it occasionally stumbles in camera and performance stability. It's the difference between a cool comic panel and a slightly smudged poster taped to the wall: still fun, but not quite museum-grade.

Conclusion

If you adore the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and crave a short burst of shell-powered brawling with friends online, Mutants in Manhattan offers moments of pure, goofy pleasure. The combat is responsive, the character abilities are a delight (cheerleading ultimates never not make me grin), and the art direction gives the Turtles a comic-book swagger that fits the license. On the flip side, the game's repetitive mission design, lack of local co-op, and performance oddities on PS4 leave it feeling like a missed opportunity from a studio that usually nails this kind of thing. Critics were blunt - Metacritic skews toward 'generally unfavorable' for the PS4 version - and the game's removal from digital storefronts within a year of release didn't exactly inspire confidence that it would become a hidden gem. Would I recommend it? If you're a die-hard fan who values beating up Foot Clan hordes with strangers online and love the Turtles enough to tolerate repetition for the sake of character moments, pick it up if you find it cheap. If you want a deep, varied PlatinumGames experience or a multiplayer title you can pass the controller around for at a party, you'll probably finish the game and wonder why you didn't just order another pizza and watch an episode of the cartoon instead. Mutants in Manhattan is a guilty pleasure with a slightly guilty conscience - charming and flawed in equal measure.

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